Burl Blindness

[pmjos]

I'm finding that I'm starting to get rather weary to all but the really exceptional top woods. The term Burl Blindness seems appropriate.

The one thing I really want to know is how instruments sound. Yes nice if its pretty,  but it all seems very disproportionate in favour of aesthetics rather than tone.

When every bass above £500 is covered in some exotic wood you have to ask yourself has it gone to far? Is it worth it? would you not prefer that money spent on better pups?

[Cato]

I'm not generally a fan of fancy tops, but there's an absolutely spectacular example by Andyjr in the Build Diaries forum.

[TheGreek]

I like my basses to be unique, if not, then "different" at least - you don't get this from a painted finish. How many other people have a red/black/3TSB P bass?

Give me an exotic finish every time...

[Skybone]

I kind of have a bit of a love/hate relationship with highly figured guitars. Some of them look amazing, but some of them look far too over the top (if you pardon the pun). Some of them completely look wrong, and take away some of the visual impact of the instrument itself.

One has to wonder where all this high grade, highly figured timber comes from, and why it's only surfacing now.

 

[discreet]

Not a big fan of what I call 'coffee table' basses, or natural finishes in general - give me aged Olympic white or faded Sonic blue any day of the week. Having said that, I do like some of the wood finishes on Spector basses, and some of their transparent paint finishes are excellent. Seems to suit the brand, somehow.

 

[Dazed]

It's all choice I suppose. There's only so many colours. I like some but not all exotic wood basses. Not too keen on capped top basses, I don't know why but they seem fake to me, which is strange as I like " relic" basses. 

Same as most things in the modern world, give people more choice to spend more money. 

[BassBus]

The OP wrote about wanting better quality pickups in favour of fancy top wood. Well, I can say my Status and Overwater basses have both. Mind you they did cost a bit more than £500. I think they are worth every penny. It is always down to personal taste and who am I to say it's wrong to love a painted Fender. 80% of players can't be wrong. While I love my fancy topped basses there is also something quite special about a plain ash bodied bass. Just the simple clean lines of them look so good.

[ZilchWoolham]

44 minutes ago, BassBus said:

there is also something quite special about a plain ash bodied bass. Just the simple clean lines of them look so good.

Agreed!

I like ash, and flame maple (not on everything though), but that's about as far as I'll go in terms of wood figuring. There's this certain wood you'll find on fancy basses that looks like marble, which I find incredibly off-putting. I like transparent, but coloured and somewhat glossy finishes, so I want enough grain for the wood to be recognisable as such, but nothing that looks too much like a Rorschach test.

[CamdenRob]

My main bass looks like a grandfather clock... it is also a similar weight...

Also, what's happened to BC... I havent been here for ages and looks like a young person has been let loose with the site and updated the look of everything.

Edited November 20, 2017 by CamdenRob

[Dazed]

You have some explaining to do young man. Where do you think you have been til now??

No leaving BassChat!!  

[BigRedX]

On 11/16/2017 at 19:09, Skybone said:

One has to wonder where all this high grade, highly figured timber comes from, and why it's only surfacing now.

Because in the past the accepted way was to make your solid electric instrument out of as few pieces as possible of the most stable wood available. 

Nowadays with modern construction techniques it is possible to make multi-layer bodies and use interesting looking wood which isn't strong or stable enough on its own as a facing (most fancy tops/backs are less than 5mm thick).

[alyctes]

In a few years "retro" will mean "painted in a single solid opaque colour"...